What Is A Dynamometer?

What Is A Dynamometer?

Unless you are in the industries which use and build dynamometers it is highly unlikely you will have heard off them.

Well this small articles will hopefully help you understand what they are and what a dynamometer does. So the next time some one brings them up in conversation (a boring conversation) at least you will have a vague idea what they are jabbering on about.

Charles Babbage, often referred to as the "Father of Computing," created the first dynamometers in the late 19th century.

The reason you will not have heard of a dynamometer is that they are highly specialised pieces of machinery used to measure an engines revolution per minute (RPM) and torque.

Basically it is measuring to see how powerful the engine is, so the more revolutions or turns the crankshaft makes each minute the more powerful the engines is.

Dynamometers are used is a huge array of different industries such as marine engineering to car manufacturing, in fact any industry at all that involves engines.

Why is the revolutions per minute (RPM) and torque important? Well in order to make engines run smoothly and efficiently the RPM must be within a specific range depending on what the engine is designed to do.

Charles Babbage original dynamometer developed into two different types of dynamometer the chassis dynamometer and the engine dynamometer.

The engine dynamometer is basically attached directly to the engine to measure the engines performance. Where as the vehicles tyres are placed on the chassis dynamometer to measure the cars performance in particular horse power.

Both types of dynamometers absorb power from a running engine and measure the torque required to absorb that power. Many dynamometers today are hooked up to computers, which can graph the engine's capabilities and output making it much easier to visualise and find the optimum range.